Leloudi Gets Nod to Speak at Graduation

"It's a great honor, I think, for anyone," Leloudis said. "For me it is a very special honor because I was an undergraduate here."

Leloudis graduated from UNC in 1977, earning a bachelor's in history with the highest honors.

He returned to UNC years later to earn his Ph.D. in 1989. He then joined the faculty, eventually becoming a professor of history, the associate dean for honors and the director of the James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence.

"One of the great pleasures in being back here is the sense of engagement," he said. "There's a great commitment here to learning for its own sake ... and giving that learning life and purpose."

As Leloudis sends the graduating seniors off with traditional words of wisdom and promise, he said he hopes they will remember to give back to the people who got them to this point in their lives.

"(I will speak on) the responsibilities and duties that come with being educated at a public university," he said. "It's in the spirit of that service and engagement."

After careful consideration and class polls, members of the Commencement Speaker Advisory Committee created a list of possible candidates last spring for the Dec. 20 ceremonies.

Chancellor James Moeser made the final selection from that list.

Committee Chairwoman Bernadette Gray-Little said Leloudis is an outstanding choice for the December Commencement.

"He's been very highly regarded as an instructor, someone who is very dedicated," she said.

Leloudis' chief interest in the history of the modern South led him to publish two works, "Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World" (1987) and "Schooling the New South: Pedagogy, Self, and Society in North Carolina, 1880-1920," (1996).

Leloudis also is the recipient of several distinguished recognitions, including the Undergraduate Students Teaching Award and the Ruth and Phillip Hettleman Award for Outstanding Scholarly Accomplishment by Young Faculty.

Despite his extensive work and numerous awards, Leloudis admits that the thought of giving the Commencement speech makes him is a little nervous.

"This is probably the toughest assignment I've had so far," he said. "It's one of those things that you put in the back of your head -- you just have to let it ferment."

But Leloudis said that by giving this speech and working at the University, he is continuing a tradition of teaching and changing the lives of the students around him.

"Twenty-five years ago, the men and women who were my teachers raised my sights and expanded my horizons," he said. "I suppose that's what I feel I should give back -- in the classroom, outside the classroom -- to the generation of students who are following us."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.